Hi, everyone. I am currently suffering from a brain freeze, so I need some help with a persuasive speech topic about space. It doesn't have to be about space, but I'm a space nerd so that's why my theme is space. I thought about doing the moon landing hoax (I would try to persuade people that the U.S. DID land on the moon), but I think that be come off as informative rather than persuasive.. I really want to do that one, though. I also thought about doing life in space, should we go to mars?, and the existence of UFOs... Anyone have any suggestions for a good space topic for a persuasive speech? Thanks.

Welcome to the forum!

SETI generates controversy. You could argue either side: We should search or why waste our time.

NOTE: I firmly believe that we should search.

Welcome, EmpireSB.

One possible topic of interest: Off-Earth Colonization, pros and cons.

Pros- infinite room for growth, unlimited resources (material and energy), freedom to build fully independent societies apart from larger cultural monopolies, increased survival odds for humanity the further away and the more places we settle

Cons-- Huge expense of initial investment, technical challenges of construction and longterm life support, overcoming Earth's gravity well

Here's a good place to start research: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_colonization

__________________
"If this were play'd upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction."
Shakespeare, Twelfth Night
"The Mayan symbol for "book" looks a lot like a triple hamburger, but I've never seen them claiming it as proof the Mayans had Big Macs." - KaiYeves
"Distance doesn’t matter much in space, where if you just start a thing off with the right kind of shove, sooner or later it will get where you want it to go." -Frederik Pohl, Mining the Oort

Why we should explore space... From going back to the moon or going to Mars and beyond.
Give NASA all the help you can!

Hi, Here's a real good one. Consider the question of establishing a genuine
2001 type space station ...the real thing, instead of going to Mars for gravel.
This will get you some attention. Gauranteed.
Best regards, Dan

Well, for a specifically persuasive talk, Mars has to be the best idea, if only because Mars is so much in the public eye these days, as well as in the NASA budget. Taxpayers are paying for Mars. Remember, Mars opposition is Christmas eve this year, so there will be the usual publicity about that too. So take advantage of the fact that lots of people are already thinking about Mars, and are therefore more likely to be attracted to your topic.

And you may want to avoid being too general, or people may lose interest. Simply colonizing space may suffer from that weakness. But more to the point, we are paying tax money right now for Pres. Bush's back to Mars endeavour. Should we be working to send people to Mars right now? That's clearly a topic taylor made for the persuasive mode, whichever side you are on. And it's also timely and relevant to us right now. There is a lot of information about robotic & human Mars exploration out there (NASA: Human Spaceflight & Mars, Mars Society, Red Colony & etc.), so you should not have much trouble finding reliable facts to back up whichever persuasion you want to apply.

__________________
The point of philosophy is to start with something so simple as not to seem worth stating, and to end with something so paradoxical that no one will believe it. -- Bertrand Russell

You could talk about space exploration being the only possible way to provide the means to save mankind from a future cataclismic event, like an asteroid collision. I has happened and it will happen again. I can´t think of a better justification for space research/exploration.

__________________
What brings us together is stronger than what pulls us apart

Why I Think Astronomers are UP IN THE NIGHT

__________________
jwj

It's a big universe out there...is it really unwinding, really burning out?

Astronomers are up all night observing the cosmos. They are a good sort.

Aero space engineers are up day and night designing and building things that go up, and things that go into space. They are a good sort.

Politicians stay up day and night thinking of ways to get money spent in their state and district so as to lure voters to their "accomplishments ". You can pretend that they are a good sort. They don't care how the money is spent so long as it appears to give them good press.

Robotic engineers design things that work at their command from far...far away
and give us telecommunication satelites and the weather channel along with GPS
and solar storm warnings as well as mapping the world in colour for fun and profit. They are a good sort because they give us back something tangible in our daily lives which is worth the money they spend to many people.

Then...there are those who spend money for many and sundrie reasons
for adventure and glory.

This may, of course , be an over simplification .

Worth is in the eye of the beholder.